Above, Rebecca Hanson, executive director of the Newfound Lake Region Association, shows the area in the Grey Rocks Conservation Area where a $2.2 million conservation center will soon be built in Hebron. Photo by Paula Tracy
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
HEBRON – The Newfound Lake Region Association is about to break ground on a $2.2 million conservation center here at the Grey Rocks Nature Preserve that will promote education about the lake’s health and environmental literacy.
Although the deep, clear lake in the center of the state has never experienced a toxic cyanobacteria bloom, the association’s goal is to keep it that way and to educate everyone on how they can help because the threat to the lake is growing, says Rebecca Hanson, the association’s executive director.
On a windy Tuesday, as whitecaps formed over the lake in Hebron, Bristol, Alexandria and Bridgewater and summer camps were winding down for the season, Hanson took a walk along the association’s trail system and showed drawn plans for the Grey Rocks Conservation Center at 178 North Shore Road.
The 70 acres here at the confluence of two rivers were once a fishing spot for Native Americans who called the lake Pasquaney. It was later known as Grey Rocks, a summer camp for young women, and then became the Newfound Marina before being purchased by the McLane family.
The McLanes removed the marina’s six buildings, cleaned up the marina’s toxic waste, established a conservation easement on the property, and donated it to the Newfound Lake Region Association in 2011.
Currently, the property is used for its beautiful hiking trails. Families have been out on its shores to fish, picnic, and take advantage of the free non-motorized cartop boat access to the lake. The site is also the starting and ending point for the association’s narrated nature tours of the lake from its pontoon boat docked there.
Hanson said construction will begin in two weeks on the parking lot on a new conservation center that will be open to the public to expand educational opportunities and bolster the organization’s scientific efforts, which are currently conducted at the organization’s headquarters in a bank building in Bristol.
The center will house a water quality laboratory, feature stormwater landscapes, pollinator gardens, interactive exhibits, and a venue for school visits and conservation events.
By July 22, 90 percent of the project costs had been raised.
The NLRA’s mission is to protect Newfound Lake and its watershed, which it has done for over 50 years. The association accomplishes this through education, programs, and cooperation with the state and other agencies.
The walking trails at Sandy Point feature new interpretive signs to show visitors what they are seeing as they walk along the riverbank, highlighting native flowers and pollinators, forest succession, beavers and their engineering skills, and the changing contours of the channel that connects the property to the lake.
Newfound is the fourth largest lake in the state, considering Lake Umbagog on the Maine-New Hampshire border. It is 4,451 acres in size and has some of the deepest water in the state at 183 feet. It is considered a high-quality water source and has about 22 miles of shoreline.
The approximately 329 square meter building will be constructed in the fall and winter and is scheduled to open next summer.
Hanson said the building will not only be the headquarters of the association and its staff, but also a learning space for the public with permanent and traveling exhibits. It will have solar panels and be designed to be energy efficient.
“Our vision is to create a place that truly serves this community and deepens everyone’s relationship with the lake,” she said.
Hanson added that this will benefit the work of the association, which manages the catchment area and provides information that could be helpful in ensuring a healthy future for the lake.
The association has contracted two New Hampshire companies to build the new center: Sippican Partners Construction of Ashland and Bensonwood of Walpole.
For more information visit https://newfoundlake.org/
